Neurobiological Mechanisms of Addictive Behavior

Regular consumption of psychoactive substances leads to many unfavorable sequelae, the most serious of which is the development of addictive behavior, with the compulsive desire to consume a psychoactive substance despite its serious consequences displacing all other activities. Addiction is charact...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience and behavioral physiology 2012-09, Vol.42 (7), p.678-691
Main Author: Ivlieva, N. Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abstinence
Addiction
Addictions
Addictive behaviors
Behavior
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Complications
Cortex
Dopamine
Drug abuse
Environmental factors
Genetic factors
Laboratory animals
Memory
Narcotics
Nervous system
Neurobiology
Neurosciences
Physiology
Psychotropic drugs
Reinforcement
Risk factors
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Regular consumption of psychoactive substances leads to many unfavorable sequelae, the most serious of which is the development of addictive behavior, with the compulsive desire to consume a psychoactive substance despite its serious consequences displacing all other activities. Addiction is characterized by an extremely high risk of renewed substance abuse even after prolonged periods of abstinence. It is suggested that addiction is based on the pathological usurpation of the processes of reinforcement, memory, and motivatory regulation, along with dysfunctions of the frontal areas of the cerebral cortex, which in normal conditions regulates decision-taking processes. The key role in the development of these changes belongs to the mesocortical-limbic dopaminergic system. Types of addictive behavior based on agents other than psychoactive substances are linked with similar changes in the nervous system. Addiction results from the interaction of genetic factors and environmental factors. It is characterized by phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity and a high level of interaction between genes and the environment. Apart from genes, a wide spectrum of external conditions lead to the development of both resistance and susceptibility to disorders associated with the consumption of psychoactive substances.
ISSN:0097-0549
1573-899X
DOI:10.1007/s11055-012-9619-6